“How do we look away from the failings of the church today? Today’s church is overburdened with vile politics, hate, racism and misappropriation of funds, etc. Why should I associate with the church…?“

Harold Camping’s false prophesies, the Left Behind fiction series and the voluminous other silliness notwithstanding (except they are with standing — considerable standing, in fact — at least in evangelicalism), how many of us have bothered to do any real homeworkon the biblical “rapture?” Hmm?

[Why did he have to go and give Christians the credit there? Why couldn’t he just gloss over that irrelevant detail, like the mainstream media always does (notice where, and only where, that part of the story was published)?]

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“… what would a comprehensive and detailed movie version of the Bible be rated? One prominent Christian filmmaker, Phil Cooke, believes it would be given a strong ‘R’ rating – maybe even an ‘X’ (NC-17).“

“… the exact shade, texture and depth of the imprints on the cloth could only be produced with the aid of ultraviolet lasers – technology that was clearly not available in medieval times… [and] the iconic image of the bearded man must therefore have been created by ‘some form of electromagnetic energy’… And in case there was any doubt about the preternatural degree of energy needed to make such distinct marks, the Enea report spells it out: ‘This degree of power cannot be reproduced by any normal UV source built to date’… [and] the marks were not made by paints, pigments or dyes and that the image was not ‘the product of an artist.’”

[My question: Why didn’t they re-date the fibers since that was the main criticism of the Shroud from the last series of tests?]

[Go figure.]

and…

“Scientists are in agreement that no paints, pigments, dyes, or stains have been discovered that could have made the image of that battered man. Furthermore, the substance forming the image sits on top and does not penetrate the cloth. This amazing finding only adds to the mystery.”